3 comments:

Noe tries very hard, but he doesn't work for me. Too much "look at me" and too little substance. Ira Robbins once said of Marilyn Manson "There's nothing as lame or pitiful as contrived outrage, and no band around fails to shock with as much concerted effort as Marilyn Manson." Same goes for Noe. His movies do little more than reveal his transparent desperation to impress filmdom's impressionables.

I totally disagree with you. I think he has as strong a command of the form/language of film as almost any director working. You might not like how he employs the techniques he's mastered (I DO like his work for more than formal reasons), but it's hard to argue that he's not a master at the craft.

Well, sure. And Marilyn Manson makes nicely produced records. I still don't want to listen to 'em, though.

In my view, his interest in making me watch something unpleasant, though, for damn little reason, sort of overwhelms his abilities as a master lensman. And I say this as someone with a taste for unpleasant cinema. In fact, I won't even disparage that unpleasant subject matter -- it's his intentions with it that I find so suspect. Outside of drawing attention to his film, his ultraviolence serves no satisfying artistic purpose. In other words, as an artist, he's a great marketer. Which brings us back to Marilyn Manson.